Civics

December 15, 2010, 10:10 a.m. | Updated Overview | What difficulties do undocumented immigrant children face when it comes time for them to go to college? What are the pros and cons of the legislation that has been proposed to address these difficulties? In this lesson, students engage in a roundtable debate on the Dream Act and will then write a letter to their United States senators either supporting or opposing the legislation.

Note to Teacher | This lesson is focused on issues relating to undocumented immigrant youth, which may be a sensitive issue for students in your class. Be sure that students understand that you will be debating the relative worth of a particular piece of legislation and not the relative worth of the people that the legislation would affect. You might want to set ground rules for respectful discussion and take care to avoid treating anyone in the room, or anyone familiar to the group, as a token.

Note to Commenters | This is a lesson plan based on Times reporting, provided as a resource for teachers. We invite thoughtful comments on the lesson and on the teaching of the topic. We suggest that readers interested in commenting on the Dream Act per se find a more appropriate place to do so elsewhere on NYTimes.com, like this post on The Caucus.

Warm-up | Show on a screen the interactive “Immigration Navigator” infographic. As a class, zoom in to examine the information included for your county. Note how many foreign-born residents live in your county and what approximate percentage of the county population is foreign-born. Alternatively, use the interactive map “Mapping America, Every City, Every Block,” based on Census data.

Next, show the interactive “Diversity in the Classroom,” which shows demographic changes in schools across the nation. Click on your state and then select your county and district from the drop-down menu to see how racial demographics among students have changed locally over time.

Individually, have students answer the following questions in their journals: What was the first thing you noticed when you saw the Immigration Navigator map? What is the most surprising thing you’ve learned by viewing this map? What is missing from this map? What reasonable correlations might you make, and conclusions might you draw, from pairing the data about your county from the map with the student demographic charts? Why?

After a few minutes, have several students share what they wrote with the class, and hold a brief discussion about what the information says about immigration and diversity in your county. Then draw students’ attention to the sources that are listed on the map. Are all foreign-born residents included on this map? Who might not be included?

Ask: If it were your job to update “Immigration Navigator” to include unauthorized immigrants, how much would the numbers and percentages of foreign-born residents change for counties in states like Texas and California? For our county?

To conclude this warm-up, show students Figure 3 and Table 5 in the Department of Homeland Security’s report, which breaks down the unauthorized immigrant population by age and gender, and or the Times graphic “Under One Roof, Both Legal and Illegal.”

Tell students that in today’s class you will be discussing a controversial piece of legislation that is up for debate in the United States Senate which, if passed, would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented minors, known as the Dream Act, or the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2009. You might provide this overview, from the Sunday Magazine article “Coming Out Illegal”:

The federal bill, a version of which was introduced in Congress in 2001, would create a pathway to legal residency for immigrants who arrived in this country as children, have been in the United States for at least five years and have graduated from a U.S. high school or obtained a G.E.D. To gain status, they would have to finish two years of college or military service.

Tell students they will now read more about the Dream Act and reasons why people both support and oppose its passage.

Wednesday was a good day for those who want to make it easier for such young people to gain legal residency and citizenship: “A bill to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students passed the House of Representatives late Wednesday, giving President Obama an unexpected although largely symbolic victory in the final days of Democratic control of Congress on an issue he has called a top priority,” reported The Times’s Julia Preston. “The bill, known as the Dream Act, passed the House by a vote of 216 to 198.”

Friday, less so: “Senate Democrats on Thursday pulled a measure that would allow illegal immigrant students to earn legal status through education or military service after Republicans refused to allow a vote on a version of the legislation that had cleared the House on Wednesday,” wrote The Times’s Carl Hulse. “Rather than try to break a Republican filibuster against the Senate’s so-called Dream Act, Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, instead forced a vote to call off the attempt, presumably so he could try again later.”

Read the entire post with your class, using the questions below.

Questions | For discussion and reading comprehension:

What is the Dream Act?

What arguments in support of the Dream Act are put forth by the proponent of the bill who are profiled in this article? Do you agree or disagree with these arguments? Why?

What different tactics have students used to get out their message about the Dream Act? Do you think these are effective tactics? Why or why not?

After reading this post, do you support or oppose the Dream Act? Why?

After reading this article, what questions do you still have about the Dream Act and the debates over it that have arisen in the Senate?

Around the Web

Activity | Explain to students that they will examine different positions on the Dream Act, and then adopt personas to engage in a roundtable debate on whether or not the act should become law.

Split the class into six groups, and assign each group to read and discuss one of the position pieces in the Times Room for Debate feature “Immigrant Children in Legal Limbo.” This particular feature is slightly skewed towards supporting the bill, so in order to include more perspectives in opposition to the legislation you can assign another group to read Congressman Lamar Smith’s Letter to the Editor or watch Mark Krikorian’s commentary in the Bloggingheads video “Debating Dream.” Tell them that their task will be to represent their assigned expert’s view in the class roundtable discussion, regardless of personal opinion.

First, students will read their assigned position piece and answer the following questions through discussion in their small group:

Who is the author?

Does the author support of oppose the Dream Act?

Identify two or three of the author’s central arguments for or against the bill.

Identify the evidence that the author includes to support each of his or her arguments.

What anecdotes or phrases are particularly powerful or effective?

At the start of our roundtable debate, all groups will give an opening statement. Craft a brief outline of your opening statement.

Once group members fully understand the arguments being made in their assigned position piece, have them adopt the persona of their position piece’s author and join a full class roundtable debate or discussion about whether or not the Senate should pass the bill when it comes up for a vote. If your small groups are larger than three people each, you may want to split the class into two or more roundtable debate groups in order to give all students a chance to speak. And you might want to frame the exercise as a discussion, in which views are exchanged and examined, as opposed to a traditional debate; or, you may want to choose a different debate format.

Develop a structure for the activity, such as assigning group representatives to take responsibility for delivering opening and closing statements and rebuttals, finding relevant facts, and so on, as well as guidelines, like the number of times each persona must be heard from, the number of times each student must speak, maintaining the assigned persona, etc.

For a roundtable debate, have each group give an opening statement, and then open the floor for rebuttal. During this section, students will pose questions and respond to each others’ positions. Conclude the debate by having each group give a closing statement that responds to what they have heard from the other participants.

After the debate, ask students if any of them found that engaging in this debate got them thinking about the issue in a new way. If so, how? What arguments did you find the most persuasive? Why? If you could sit down with a senator before he or she votes on the Dream Act, what would you say?

Going further | Students write letters to their United States senators either supporting or opposing the Dream Act, citing information from the sources used in this lesson, those in the Related Resources list above, other Times articles and other reputable sources.

In their letters, students should do the following: introduce themselves (including their name, age, school, and city), urge their senator to vote either for or against the Dream Act when it comes up for a vote, explain two or three reasons why they support or oppose the Dream Act, include evidence or anecdotes to support their reasons and thank the senator for his or her time.

Civics
1. Understands ideas about civic life, politics, and government.
3. Understands the sources, purposes, and functions of law, and the importance of the rule of law for the protection of individual rights and the common good.
9. Understands the importance of Americans sharing and supporting certain values, beliefs, and principles of American constitutional democracy.
11. Understands the role of diversity in American life and the importance of shared values, political beliefs, and civic beliefs in an increasingly diverse American society.
13. Understands the character of American political and social conflict and factors that tend to prevent or lower its intensity.
14. Understands issues concerning the disparities between ideals and reality in American political and social life.
18. Understands the role and importance of law in the American constitutional system and issues regarding the judicial protection of individual rights.
19. Understands what is meant by “the public agenda,” how it is set, and how it is influenced by public opinion and the media.
20. Understands the roles of political parties, campaigns, elections, and associations and groups in American politics.
21. Understands the formation and implementation of public policy.
23. Understands the impact of significant political and nonpolitical developments on the United States and other nations.
24. Understands the meaning of citizenship in the United States, and knows the requirements for citizenship and naturalization.
25. Understands issues regarding personal, political, and economic rights.
26. Understands issues regarding the proper scope and limits of rights and the relationships among personal, political, and economic rights.
27. Understands how certain character traits enhance citizens’ ability to fulfill personal and civic responsibilities.
28. Understands how participation in civic and political life can help citizens attain individual and public goals.
29. Understands the importance of political leadership, public service, and a knowledgeable citizenry in American constitutional democracy.

Geography
1. Understands the characteristics and uses of maps, globes, and other geographic tools and technologies.
3. Understands the characteristics and uses of spatial organization of Earth’s surface.
9. Understands the nature, distribution and migration of human populations on Earth’s surface.
12. Understands the patterns of human settlement and their causes.

United States History
17. Understands massive immigration after 1870 and how new social patterns, conflicts, and ideas of national unity developed amid growing cultural diversity.
26. Understands the economic boom and social transformation of post-World War II United States.
31. Understands economic, social, and cultural developments in the contemporary United States.

Historical Understanding
1. Understands and knows how to analyze chronological relationships and patterns.

Language Arts
1. Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process.
2. Uses the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing.
3. Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions.
4. Gathers and uses information for research purposes.
5. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process.
7. Uses skills and strategies to read a variety of informational texts.
8. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes.

Life Skills: Thinking and Reasoning
1. Understands and applies the basic principles of presenting an argument.
2. Understands and applies basic principles of logic and reasoning.

Life Skills: Working With Others
1. Contributes to the overall effort of a group.
2. Uses conflict-resolution techniques.
3. Works well with diverse individuals and in diverse situations.
4. Displays effective interpersonal communication skills.
5. Demonstrates leadership skills.

Family/Consumer Sciences
1. Understand the family as the basic unit of society.
2. Understand the impact of the family on the well-being of individuals and society.

Behavioral Studies
1. Understands that group and cultural influences contribute to human development, identity and behavior.
2. Understands various meanings of social group, general implications of group membership, and different ways that groups function.
3. Understands that interactions among learning, inheritance and physical development affect human behavior.
4. Understands conflict, cooperation and interdependence among individuals, groups and institutions.

I would say that make sure that both sides are addressed when teaching the topic. What pitfalls can occur if it’s passed? What does our country need to be cognizant of before it’s passed? Does it work as is or should it be part of something larger? A more comprehensive plan for immigrants?

My name is Alontre’ W and I am a student at Joliet West high School. I am currently researching The Dream Act Debate for my final project in my world affairs class. My current thesis is: The Dream Act is more beneficial than harmful because it provides education for children. After doing some research, I still have a few Questions about the topic and would be appreciative if you could answer them.
• Why is there a problem with people immigrating to different states in the U.S.?
• If you had the choice would you be against immigration or would you trying to stop the congress from banning the Dream Act.
• Should congress pass or ban the law of immigration?
• Would the Dream Act Debate be more beneficial or harmful for people who immigrate for safety?
• Does immigration help provide better education for all children?
I appreciate your help and I thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
• What is the Dream Act?
Thank you,
Alontre’ W